After you watch the video please leave a comment below...it only takes a second. If we have already spoken via email or Facebook would you consider leaving your thoughts again so that others can benefit and join the conversation?

The post Should I Do This For Feldenkrais Folks? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Feldenkrais With Animals: Mary Debono

By the way Mary, if you read this blog post, will you consider making a listing about your practice on Feldenkrais Finder?

The post Feldenkrais Video: Using Feldenkrais Principles With Animals appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

I have decided to give away one year free listings for those of you early adopters who want to join us now...just register and create your listing...including photos, a link to your website, list of your specialties...the location of you practice on Google Maps...whatever you need...

And no waiting for me or the Guild or a volunteer or anyone else to change or update your listing...you can easily and simply do it yourself whenever you want to or need to....

Feldenkrais Finder is an awesesome way to find a Feldenkrais practitioner on your computer, iphone or other smarthphone, iPad...you name it. It works on pretty much any device. Here is a short video on the project that explains how AWESOME it is: http://feldenkraisfinder.com/feldenkrais-finder-overview/

The post Feldenkrais Finder Is Now Live: Come and Grab Your Free Listing appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

The Feldenkrais Insider: Find a Feldenkrais Practitioner

Comments below. I may not respond individually to all of them, but I will read and use all the replies.

By the way, I am a little bit "wordy" in the video. My apologies. I hope to get better as I record more videos.

The post Feldenkrais 2.0: Ready To Help Create The Next Phase? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

The Hidden Dynamics of the Feldenkrais Guild...Revealed.

The post The Hidden Dynamics of the Feldenkrais Guild. . .Revealed (Video) appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

I am also letting you know that an organizer of "Guild Certified" Feldenkrais trainings and a colleague of Jerry Karzen's censored my posts by deleting them and the dozens of comments about them from the Facebook group "Feldenkrais practitioners around the world." Yet another example of how the Guild system limits access to knowledge and material and tries to present a sanitized view of the work and the man.

But, fear not, change is on the way!

The post Feldenkrais Video: Response to David Bersin and FGNA Posts ***CENSORED*** appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Over the years I have done a bit of writing on the early history and pre-history of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America. Below, I have published some provocative unpublished emails and first-person accounts of the events as well as some new archival material. You may be very surprised at what you learn. Some of the info below was published on an earlier Feldenkrais blog. I am putting this info here on RyanNagy.com so that the various bits of information can be found more easily and so that people keep in mind the dynamics of the Feldenkrais Guild and Feldenkrais "Trainers" as events unfold.

David Bersin Committed No Fraud

"I want you all to know that Moshe very much desired that his work and the words associated with his work be legally protected, and that he wanted and entrusted the Guild to protect them. This was Moshe's expressed wish. He was also vitally involved in the formation of the Guild and wanted a strong Guild to act on behalf of his wishes. In registering the service marks on his behalf, I did nothing unethical or fraudulent…” David Bersin, 1999

Let's do a quick fact check on what Bersin wrote. The creation of a Feldenkrais Guild does not seem to be Moshe's idea but rather an idea of one of his students, Dub Leigh, who brought up the idea during the San Francisco Training. There is no record of Feldenkrais wanting a "strong" guild to act on behalf of his wishes. The evidence that David Bersin registered the service marks "on Moshe's behalf" is very slim. There was a letter allegedly signed by Moshe on November 18th, 1982 giving the guild the rights to the service marks. However, it must be pointed out that the letter was not considered strong enough proof of ownership by the judge that reviewed the documents in the Baniel lawsuit (see below). And Moshe was very sick at the time of the letter. He was bedridden and had suffered from multiple heart attacks. Was Feldenkrais of sound mind? Could he have legally consented to giving away his marks?

For those of you new to the community or new to the history, David's statement above that he "did nothing unethical or fraudulent" was in response to a lawsuit filed by Anat Baniel that accused him and the Feldenkrais Guild of fraudulently registering the service marks.

The lawsuit filed in 1999, asked the United States District Court Illinois to nullify the Feldenkrais Guild service marks. In short:

[Anat Baniel asks that]...this Court declare that...the Guild's registrations of the Terms Feldenkrais and Feldenkrais Method...were procured by fraud on the United States Patent and Trademark Office; and...order the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cancel [the service mark registrations]

Why nullify the marks? The lawsuit claimed that David Bersin mis-represented the Guild's ownership of the service marks and committed fraud. In short:

"In June, 1983, the Guild filed service mark applications for the Terms with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In connection with such applications, the Guild, through its officer and agent David Bersin (AKA/ David Zemach-Bersin, hereinafter "Bersin"), represented to the USPTO that the Guild was the "owner"of the Terms, and that "no person, firm, corporation or association" other than the Guild had the right to use the Terms.

Bersin's June, 1983 representations to the USPTO as described in I8, above, were materially false, as Bersin and the Guild well knew".

You can find a copy of the lawsuit filing here: BanielLawsuitFiling.

In other words, Bersin represented that the Guild was the owner of Moshe's service marks terms. Though some would like to say otherwise, it is not just Anat Baniel who doubts the Guild's registration and ownership of the service marks. There are many others. For example, in a memo marked "confidential" to the Guild's Board of Directors dated in 1985, just two years after Bersin's application, we see that even some Guild officers had strong reservations.

"I’m sure that in the fall last year, I was very much taken with the notion of owning a service mark, and all the power and implications that went with that, and I was responding positively to Fred Goldberg’s [attorney] position that we were the owners of the FI mark and we should do all we could to keep it. However, several weeks ago, I began being haunted by the question, “Are we really the owner of the marks?” My stomach churned…. these are Moshe’s marks, how can we call them ours… . By what authority do we call ourselves owners – maybe we need another legal opinion; what legal grounds do we have to call ourselves owners. Frankly I was scared.- Bonnie Humiston, Former FGNA Director, letter taken from the lawsuit filing."

My journey into understanding the "Great War For The Service Marks" began with email conversations to people in the San Francisco and Amherst trainings. This was before I had read any of the lawsuit filings or FeldyForum posts on the topic. I was honored by how honest and open people were in talking about the history. I was also little bit shocked by how often David Bersin's name came up. Though I have not been a member of the Feldenkrais Guild for many years, I did serve on several Guild-related boards and committees including FEFNA and the Esther Thelen Research Fund. To my recollection, David Bersin's name rarely, if ever, came up. Seemingly he has had no official role for many years.

Here is a part of a conversation that I had with a former student from Moshe' Amherst training:

"Can you tell me more on why you would attribute some of the [service mark] issue to David? I'm certainly not going to argue the point, would just like more details. Could help for a future blog post." - Ryan Nagy, email, 2010

And here is a reply, slightly edited to maintain the anonymity of several people referred to in the email.

"Ryan, your question is a good one. After all, David seems uninvolved in the Guild and publicly seems only to care about his training programs. The truth is that David ignores most everything other than training standards where he is like an eagle seeing movement from far away. When Anat spoke about her lawsuit it was all David all the time. David telling her that she couldn't change her trainings and still call it Feldenkrais, David initiating and prosecuting the suit, David having "gotten the rights to the name Feldenkrais from Moshe" and etc. When the NATAB worked on curriculum it was David's paper that closed the show, seeking unspecified higher standards - you trained under him, was everything so clear and were the standards of training so high as to insure that trainees would come out as well formed practitioners???

Even today, when the FGNA board wants to "Support an effective process for changing training policy" who is the 1st trainer to join to make certain that there will be no changes, other than those to raise barriers to entry, DZB. Who led the charge to exclude Yochanan, Mia, and to marginalize anyone who saw the world any differently than him? DZB Who will be the 1st to say that Mia is not doing Feldenkrais but some splinter application of his work when he finds out that she will do a training in the US, DZB, not the Guild, but DZB. Why do they feel so threatened???" Personal email to Ryan, April 2010 from a former student of the Amherst Training.

The above email sets the stage for you to understand what many people in the community know already: David Bersin is a behind the scenes player who does a great deal to attempt to control training policy, service marks and the guild. Several people have gone so far as to credit him with the genesis of the original service mark lawsuit due to his personal attacks and email tirades directed against Anat Baniel. However, I have not had a chance to read any of those emails, I only have second hand reports. I would like to get them and share them with the community if possible. Feel free to get them to me anonymously or just send them to me directly and I will gladly publish them.

This leads us back to the point of this blog post and the genesis of the Feldenkrais Guild's control of what were Moshe Feldenkrais' personal service marked terms. Does the Feldenkrais Guild truly own the service marks? Was it Moshe's intention to give them away to David Bersin and his other new and very inexperienced practitioners?

Settled Out Of Court

To me, the most interesting part of the service mark lawsuit was that it was settled out of court. The Guild and its supporters spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting it, and in the end gave in to most of Anat's demands. Though the Guild never admitted to any fraud or wrongdoing, they did give Anat what she wanted, which was the ability to use the service marked terms, change how she conducted her trainings and to stop paying to have her trainings certified by the guild. (Click to read: Baniel_Settlement+Summary.)

If the Feldenkrais Guild did in fact own the service marks and have clear title to them, I am puzzled as to why they would back down and give Anat what she wanted. I have heard, but have not yet been able to verify, that the court did not find the Guild's evidence of ownership compelling and made a preliminary ruling against its ownership of the marks. At this point, the Guild lawyer's recommended a settlement so that the Guild did not lose its marks.

Update April 3rd, 2017: I have recently gotten access to the court docket from the lawsuit, which sheds some light (just a bit) on the Guild settling out of court. The FGNA asked the court to make a summary judgement against Anat's claims, but the court refused to do so:

(Item 55)"The Guild's motion for summary judgement on...the complaint and it's counterclaim is denied..."

(Item 63)"...bench trial set for 10/26/00 at 9:00 am."

So, the FGNA was being forced to go to a full trial. A trial in which they could have lost their service marks. They decided to settle with Anat, giving her enough of what she wanted so that she would drop the suit.

If they had a strong and clear case for ownership of the marks, it would have never made it out of the pre-trial phase and a trial date would not have been set.

End up Update

However, it is not just the court case that throws doubt on David Zemach Bersin' story that Moshe wanted his marks transferred to the guild and wanted the guild to "protect" his work. In fact, most first person accounts summarily reject David's position. For example, below is a quote from Feldenkrais "Trainer" Carl Ginsburg who graduated from the San Francisco Training in 1977.

All We Have Is A Letter

"The Guild's response letter [to the lawsuit] is as expected to the challenge and on the surface seems reasonable and correct. It matches the outer history of how the Guild got the service marks and what the Guild's purpose is in controlling these legal protections. But there is also an inner history. Anat [Baniel] and Eilat's view actually matches this inner history. Although the Guild's letter tries to put the weight of Moshe's intentions behind the legal stance, we have only his letter asking the Guild to make the service marks in his name and his initial promotion of the Guild as evidence. There is much more to know, and this has to do with what Moshe was saying privately. Here there isn't much documentation, although I am told there are some taped conversations and statements." - Feldenkrais "Trainer" Carl Ginsburg

Is that not fascinating? We only have a letter. A letter that may or may not have been written by Moshe. Carl Ginsburg is saying that Anat's view matches the inner history...meaning what? Carl believes that the service marks were obtained fraudulently? That the "outer history" that is taught about the Feldenkrais Guild is false? That the "outer history" or public stories told about the guild are not truthful?

And how about this:

"I don't think it was Moshe's actual signature."

"All I'm saying is, I don't think it was Moshe's actual signature on the document, although he "may" have given his tacit approval...but there was a lot of ambivalence there at the time...or possibly when David and Mark were in Israel with Moshe collecting signatures for certificates, guild business, etc...that he was not fully cognizant of what he was signing....whatever it was Anat knew and that is how she got the out of court settlement...." 2nd former student of the Amherst Training, March 2010

Keep in mind, that when David returned from Israel with the letter, allegedly signed by Feldenkrais, that Feldenkrais was near death and had suffered several heart attacks. Could Moshe Feldenkrais have possibly have consented to transferring the marks? Did he know what he was signing? Did he sign sign the letter at all?

“even if we put aside the possibility of fraud. I have often wondered about Moshe’s state of mind when he signed over control of the Service Marks to the Guild. From what I have heard, he was not fully himself after the strokes. Even though he wanted there to be a Guild, it is highly doubtful that he [Moshe] wanted to grant control over the structure and content of trainings to a group of his least experienced students. Did he realize that these relative newbies would become the final arbiters of the who and how of certifying newly minted practitioners to use the now Service Marked terms ATM, FI, and the Feldenkrais Method for the forseeable future? I don’t think that there is any doubt that this would not have been his intent. - Personal email to Ryan, April 2010 from a former student of the Amherst Training.

That needs a bit of clarification. Perhaps in today's world David Bersin, Paul Rubin, Denis Leri, and the others from the first American training in San Francisco seem like "old hands." After all, they have been training almost 30 years now. However at the time of Moshe's death they were new to the method. Very new. Bersin states on his website that he has been a Feldenkrais Practitioner since 1977 which was the year of graduation of the San Francisco Trainer. He became a so-called "Feldenkrais Trainer" a mere five years later in 1983. And how did he become a trainer? Did Moshe ask him to? No, Moshe died in 1984 and was in Israel in 1983, terminally ill. David was actually "declared" to be a trainer by Jerry Karzen who was functioning as the Director of the (now defunct) Feldenkrais Foundation. According to a letter sent by Jerry to the Feldenkrais Guild:

In January 1983, I was asked by the Directors of the Feldenkrais Foundation to become its executive Director while simultaneously the No. [North] American Feldenkrais Guild established the Training Accreditation Board. Soon thereafter, I asked Mark Reese, Russell Delman, and David Bersin to serve temporarily as trainers in Foundation sponsored training programs...

- Full Text of Karzen's letter here.

So David Bersin had been a practitioners for five years, with no demonstrated competence as trainer, a virtual neophyte to the work, and he was thrust into the role of trainer by Jerry Karzen who himself was not a trainer and had no basis for his decision other than political and business reasons.

Keep in mind that at the time Bersin "ascended into heaven" as Feldenkrais trainer after 5 years, there were others, who had already been working with Moshe for more than 20 years! In fact, when David became a practitioner in 1977, Mia Segal and Yochanon Rywerant had already been working with Moshe for about 20 years and Mia was teaching independently having been given permission by Moshe. Mia, in fact, was an assistant and teacher at the training in which David Bersin became a practitioner.

There were others who had been working with Moshe for decades, including the rest of the 13 students from Moshe's Tel Aviv training including Alon Talmi, Eli Wadler, Shlomo Efrat, Gaby Yaron, Batya Fabian, Devora Chisday, Myriam Pfeffer, Chava Shelhav, Bruria Milo, Shlomo Bracha, Ruthy Alon, and Fanny Loc.

But where this story gets even weirder and sadder is when we look at the attitudes that these young, american, neophyte practitioners had, and continue to have, towards their more experienced elders.

When she [Mia Segal] and Yochanon started their [Feldenkrais] programs I had already left my positions with the Guild and the Feldenkrais Foundation. However I told Guild board members then that they should sue both Yochanon and Mia for improper use of the terms. (...) I asked people why are you sponsoring Mia and Yochanon to give advanced programs and mentorships?  Why are you elevating them to such a high status in the community? - Jerry Karzen

I hold no grudges towards Mia, Yochanon or Anat for starting their own versions of the "true" Feldenkrais Method according to them. More power to them. However it is chickenshit of them and their students to slam us and then expect to be welcomed into the fold. - Denis Leri

Fascinating, is it not? These young men who declared themselves to be trainers while Moshe lay dying and who took ownership of his service marks and legacy, continually degrade those who had been working directly with Mosh for many, many years, some of whom had in fact been their teachers.

And this idea that Mia and Yochanon were somehow creating their "own versions" of the Feldenkrais is fascinating, is it not? They had been working with Moshe for decades. In reality, it was the North American Guild, after getting hold of Moshe's marks, who started their own version of the Method. A version almost entirely based on legal control of the service marks and the assumption that what Moshe was doing at the Amherst and San Francisco trainings was "true Feldenkrais." Given that Bersin, Leri, Rubin, Karzen and the others were new to the work how could they have known what "true" Feldenkrais was?

I will skip for now the deeper question of discussing whether "true Feldenkrais" exists. It does not and cannot. Feldenkrais did what he did and you and I do what we do. There may be common principles and attitudes but true Feldenkrais only exists when you are true to yourself.

Let us also keep in mind, that these same people have stopped Mia, Yochanon and the other's from conducting trainings in the United States. Do not believe me? Here is a first-person account from Paul Rubin of the time when Mia was forced to stop training in the U.S.

Here’s what happened that I know about in regard to Mia's N.J. [Feldenkrais] training being called off. It is a painful memory for me all these years later. When Mia announced that she was planning a training in N.J., I was Chair of the NATAB. [North American Training and Accredidation Board] ...and was neither officially informed nor consulted...I was asked by the Board of Directors and the rest of the TAB to speak to Mia about this, so it fell to me to tell my highly respected and beloved mentor that the Guild felt a strong need to protect the service marks and that we hoped that she would consider re-joining the larger community in North America and to negotiate to operate her training within that system.

It was the hardest conversation of my professional life. I did my best to explain that this was not about doubting her or the quality of her work...

This conversation took place as I was driving her from a workshop she invited me to visit that she was co-teaching at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco to where Leora [Leora Gastor, Mia's daughter] was staying in Palo Alto. A travel time of about an hour.

Mia listened to me and said on the spot, "Then I will not do this training. I do not wish to oppose what you are doing." It was a very sad moment for me. I had been hoping that she would have said, instead, "then let's explore how I can be a part of the North American community of teachers."

Mia who had been doing the work for decades and was already a trainer in her own right was told by Paul Rubin, a new practitioner with little experience in the work, that she had to work under his rules. What would you do if one of your student's told you to quit doing your work and to answer to them and their new policies? Would you consent?

Below is another viewpoint. We have been constantly told by David Bersin, Paul Rubin and others that Moshe was "vitally interested" in the Guild and saw it his vehicle for "protecting" the work. You may be beginning to see that is not the case?

“Moshé had no interest in the incorporation process, and not very much interest in the “Guild“ activities in the years following. I have a letter from Moshé, stating his unwillingness to give time to an organization, members accepted, no matter how ineffective. With Moshé working hard and traveling, he did not want to waste time with the “confusion”, common to the “guild”, with several factions, wanting to control and influence the “guilds” activities.”

Moshe did not want to waste time on the Feldenkrais Guild. Smart man. Apart from waking you up the reality of what the Guild is and from whence it came, neither do I. I have not been a member for many years.

Ryan Nagy
from somewhere in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

The post Is This What David Bersin Did? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

“All professions are conspiracies against the laity” - George Bernard-Shaw.

I encountered the quote above on the website of The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is directly relevant to members of the Feldenkrais community, especially former and current members of the Feldenkrais Guild.

"The way in which professions acquire prestige, power, and wealth is by taking unto themselves a body of knowledge and expertise and only relinquishing it in doses in exchange for payment. The creation of dependency is an intrinsic part of that process." http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/3/161.2.full

Dependency And The Feldenkrais Guild

Dependency is baked into the Feldenkrais Guild system. If you are in the guild - at any level - you are in a dependecny relationship.

Although the work itself can lead to reductions in anxiety and increased ability to act in one's own behalf, the Guild system itself works in the opposite direction. It both increases the dependency and conformity of its members while simultaneously sidelining and sometimes outright ex-communicating those that refuse to conform.

Consider Mia Segal and Yochanan Rywerant. Both highly skilled practitioners and trainers had already been working directly with Moshe for decades when the young American neophyte students took over. The Americans tried to force their elders (and betters in my opinion) to conform to their own rules and vision for the Method. They refused. Conform or be cast out. In a future post, I will share with you a detailed first-person from Paul Rubin about how he sidelined Mia Segal and forced her to stop teaching in the U.S. Keep in mind that Mia was one of Paul's teachers and mentors. If one of your students told you how to conduct your work and practice, what would you do?

"This is what Feldenkrais wanted," is what David Bersin, Paul Rubin, Denis Leri, Jerry Karzen, and others have been telling us for decades. If only it were so.

What is the function of the Feldenkrais Guild?

The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made. - Donella H. Meadows. Thinking in Systems: A Primer (p. 7). Kindle Edition.

Even a casual observation of the history of the Feldenkrais Guild shows that its function is to limit access. It limits decision-making to those who trained directly with Moshe or have been approved by the same. It drastically limits the number of people who can use the service marks to run trainings. This limits the number of trainings, artificially increasing the price. Thus, not only do 99% of all practitioners not have the option of learning to conduct trainings, but the training formats cannot evolve. The system has closed off experimentation of training and training formats. New ideas are not tested. New ideas are not used. The status quo rules. This, even though no more than a few people graduate from each training and begin their own practice.

For now, I will not describe in detail how the Guild system limits access to many of the materials and shuts out the public from purchasing nearly all of the materials related to training.

"True Feldenkrais"

In the case of the Feldenkrais Guild system, though, the conspiracy against the laity is much deeper. The so-called Feldenkrais "Trainers" who started the Guild and still largely control it, have not only taken the archival materials and created barriers to accessing it. But they have also used the acquisition of the service marks (®) as a kind of mental and legal trick to say that they and they alone are doing "true Feldenkrais." Moshe's most experienced, and some might say, most capable students, such as Mia Segal, Anat Baniel, the departed, Ruthy Alon and Rochanan Rywerant, and many others, have been repeatedly and constantly belittled as doing "derivative" work and not "true" Feldenkrais. Why is that? The core of the matter is that they do not have legal access to use the service marked terms. That is it. There is no theoretical or educational measure. It is all legal. Not "true" Feldenkrais because they do not own the marks. And by the same messed-up logic if you do not pay to use the service marks or spend the money for a training you are not doing "true" Feldenkrais either.

Oh, what a tangled web they weaved. But take heart! The end is near. The Guild is getting smaller and smaller. And if it does not end up in bankruptcy, another lawsuit will surely end it all. Some practitioners are scared of that, and in the short term, they should be. Things will get tough for a while. Especially if these practitioners have not developed their own email lists and marketing materials and following and ways of communicating intelligently about the work.

But even that may not be fatal as independent practitioners groups will likely spring up to take up the slack. But there will be a big difference. The new practitioner organizations that emerge will self-generating and self-organizing around practitioners' needs and practitioners' goals. The guild we have now is a "Trainer Guild" and it deserves its death.

"If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” Carl Sagan

I do not completely agree with Carl Sagan's quote above, as the "truth" as created by a human being is nearly always a personal truth or a social convention. Even scientific "truths" are socially created, though it is heresy to speak of that. But people have sent me emails asking me why I write about this stuff and the usefulness (or not) of the current Feldenkrais "truths" is on my mind quite a bit. People often tell me that what I write depresses them. That puzzles me.

I write about these topics because I find them liberating and motivating. What could be more wonderful than discovering more and more of our own potential to act? Much of what you have been told about Moshe Feldenkrais is a myth. That is a good thing. Discover the man for yourself, however, you choose to do so. And a great deal of what you have been told about the history of the Guild is a lie. That is fantastic! Not only do the emperors not have any clothes, but they also are not even emperors! Screw them and their lame rules made to serve their own egos, pocketbooks, and confused epistemologies. You can do what you want with this work. It is yours. Use it as you see fit to make THE world and YOUR world better. The Method is yours.

Thanks for reading. This blog post was just a warm-up. Much more is on the way. Be the first to read my blog posts and be deeply offended

"Liberate your mind and your practice will follow." - Ryan C. Nagy
From somewhere in Mexico.

The post How the Feldenkrais Guild Limits Your Potential appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

"In the state of hypnosis, one also loses entirely the ability to command oneself, but is at the highest state of involuntary suggestibility. Before this state of suggestibility is obtained, complete relaxation of the musculature must be achieved. Moreover, as Professor J. H. Schultz has shown; the relaxation must be extended so far as to relax the capillaries and the small blood vessels. " page 144, The Potent Self

There is virtually nothing about that passage that stands the test of time. And even when Moshe was alive it was demonstrably false.

Hypnosis Involves Focused Attention

In the state of hypnosis, one does not "lose entirely the ability to command oneself". On the contrary, in hypnosis, one can gain control over states of body and mind that had formerly been unavailable. The state of hypnosis can be defined as a state of focused absorption. One is actively considering ideas and possibilities and how one might use them to beneficial effect. There does not need to be "complete relaxation of the musculature" before one enters a state of hypnosis or benefits from it. One can be in an active state of hypnosis and for example, be taking a shower, driving a car, or hitting a golf ball.

Relaxation in hypnosis is similar to relaxation in Feldenkrais. It often occurs as a by-product of the process of engaging in those activities. And it is not so much a relaxation as it is an efficiency. One lets go of habitual and unneeded muscular tension in order to focus on the task at hand.

Suggestion is an Outdated Term in Hypnosis

Also, the word "suggestion" that Feldenkrais used above is problematic. It is an outdated term in modern hypnosis and psychology. One does not give "suggestions" to an involuntary person. Granted, if someone wants to be controlled and told to bark like a chicken, as you could see in a stage hypnosis show, a hypnotist can provide the context and suggestions to "give control" to the hypnotist. But in that context, it is a voluntary giving of control.

In the early 1940's Milton Erickson conducted experiments in which he attempted to get people to do things against their personal nature, such as opening others' mail and reading it. In each and every case the person in question would not do what Erickson wanted and would terminate the research experiment.

Rather than talking of suggestions, a modern and more scientific understanding of hypnosis is that in the focused, hypnotic state one is given ideas to consider. The ideas could be to view new possibilities, to consider one's past and future in new ways, to think about the self differently. The list of potential things to consider is endless. They are not "suggestions" per se, but ideas. If the ideas are beneficial to the person and can be integrated into his worldview and abilities they will likely be used. Or as Feldenkrais would repeatedly speak and write, when the nervous system finds easier and more pleasant way of acting it is likely to adopt them.

One can "suggest" all kinds of movements and thoughts, but if they do not fit with the person's way of being and acting they tend to have no effect. In Feldenkrais as in hypnosis, one is learning to find more efficient ways of acting in the world.

Feldenkrais and Strategic Approaches

This brings me to a larger frame for the ideas of this blog post. To me, hypnosis - especially Ericksonian Hypnosis - and the Feldenkrais Method share many deep similarities and each has principles that can usefully amplify the other. I am not saying that hypnosis is Feldenkrais and Feldenkrais is hypnosis. Rather, that a study and use of each can lead to greater potency as a person and as a practitioner.

I will not go too deeply into the topic right now, but I will say that I agree strongly with Yvan Joly who fits Moshe Feldenkrais's ideas in with Moshe's contemporaries who were often called "strategic therapists." Here is Yvan:

"I profoundly believe now that what we do in this [Feldenkrais] work is what we can call a “Strategic Approach”. My family of belonging now is not so much with body-workers. I feel my belonging now as a professional is more with what we call strategic approaches. Moshe’s work is akin to Milton Erikson, to some of the Brief Therapies, some of the Watzlawick ideas or Gregory Bateson. And what does strategic approach mean? To me it means, very simply, that whatever we create for ourselves is the result of what we do and how we do it. The universe that we create for ourselves is the result of how we concretely create it. In traditional psychology, this was not that well acknowledged until very recently." From Yvan Joly's website. I have uploaded a copy here.

The operative word above is "how." Much of effective psychology and psychotherapy and effective changework, in general, keeps a person focused on how they can get what they want. That often involves a focus on what is "right" with a person and leads to a focus on strengths and abilities and acquiring new ones when needed or wanted. Feldenkrais was not looking for what was "wrong" with someone, but rather how they could learn through experience to organize themselves more efficiently.

Just a few thoughts for now.

* I must note that The Potent Self from which the quote was taken was published after Moshe's death. He chose not to publish it when he was alive, so who knows how he might have changed it, had he had the chance or if he would have burned it. Regardless, it is now part of the published Feldenkrais legacy and people often refer to it, so it is fair game to criticize parts of the book.

Thomas Hanna wrote about the Potent Self. He noted, "Feldenkrais created the fragments of a system which he could never bring together conceptually. His best effort was his early book, Body and Mature Behavior, which attempted to found an analysis of human movement on a description of gravitation’s effects on muscular reflex actions. He later attempted to expand the theory in the ill-fated book, The Potent Self, which he decided was not publishable. Unfortunately, it was eventually published by his followers, but it only added theoretical confusion to his ideas." From the article,Clinical Somatic Education by Thomas Hanna

If you have respectful, on-topic, well-reasoned, and non-abusive comments feel free to leave them (though comments are closed after a time due to spam). You may have noticed that the quality of comments on my blogs has improved over the last few months. That is because I moderate comments.

The post Things Feldenkrais Was Wrong About, Part 1 appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Sound familiar? As many of you know, I occasionally create and promote conferences in the world of psychotherapy and work with many students of the late Milton H. Erickson. Many of them have similar fears about Erickson's work. More than one person has told me,

Personally, I think the Ericksonians are way off. Erickson's work has spread to the four corners of the world. He spawned countless modes of therapy such as Strategic Therapy, NLP, Solution-Focused Therapy, Possibility Therapy and his influence is felt by and credited by thousands of people all over the world. There are hundreds of people giving high-quality training based directly and indirectly on the work of Milton H. Erickson and an untold number of psychotherapist, coaches, psychologists and hypnotists using Erickson's work.

And in Feldenkrais community? The last time that I checked there were little more than 100 people training others to acquire the work. And, it would be hard to make the case that there are more than 1500 Feldenkrais practitioners in full time practice.

What makes the difference? Why has Erickson's work spread like wildfire and Feldenkrais' work largely languished in obscurity?

There are many factors to consider. The largest one in my view is that many Ericksonians have publicly recognized credentials that give them the right to have independent practices. That is, many Ericksonians are licensed by their respective state as psychotherapists, psychologists and the like. "Feldenkrais Practitioner" is a term that few people in the public have heard of, and the "licenses" as such, do not have any meaning in the larger world.

However, there is a larger point about the Ericksonian community that has not escaped my attention over the last few years: They write lots of books. In the online Erickson Conference that I organized and promoted last year, I counted over 87 books written by the 20 presenters! And that is just a small sample of Ericksonian presenters. I hesitate to guess how many books have been written by and about Erickson and methods that he has inspired. In a quick search on Amazon, I came up with 1400 different book listings. In the Feldenkrais world? About 200. (Just a quick perusal, my numbers are hardly scientific),

Writing books are important for many reasons. They are promotional tools for the author and the methods he or she is writing about. They keep ideas in the public eye. They keep people talking about ideas. And they establish credibility and authority.

I am not qualified to teach you how to write and publish a book on the Feldenkrais Method. But I recently attended a short, free, online overview of the process by my friend and colleague Bill O'Hanlon and I was thinking about Feldenkrais practitioners the entire time. If you think you have a book in you. And you want to get yourself and Feldenkrais ideas better known in the world, you might want to check it out. Click below to find out more:

Bill O'Hanlon on Book Writing and PublishingCourse ended!

We have some authors in the Feldenkrais community. Most notably and recently Anat Baniel. And others who have written books, but not recently, such as Ruthy Alon, Steven Shafarman and the late Jack Heggie, Yochanan Rywerant and Thomas Hanna. And some newer authors such as Lavinia Plonka, Alfons Grabher and others. But where are the rest? How will the Method get better known if it is not in the public eye? If YOU are not in the public eye?

Check out the training, if you have a few minutes. It will not disappoint. In fact, you may want to check out the style and presentation of the training as it could be useful as a way to promote your work, regardless of whether you write a book right now....

cheers - Ryan

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